Journal
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 79, Issue 23, Pages 7256-7263Publisher
AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1128/AEM.02141-13
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Research Council
- Life Science Area of Advance at Chalmers University of Technology
- Swedish Society for Medical Research (SSMF)
- Swedish Research Council Formas, Mistra
- Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The external environment, particularly wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), where environmental bacteria meet human commensals and pathogens in large numbers, has been highlighted as a potential breeding ground for antibiotic resistance. We have isolated the extensively drug-resistant Ochrobactrum intermedium CCUG 57381 from an Indian WWTP receiving industrial wastewater from pharmaceutical production contaminated with high levels of quinolones. Antibiotic susceptibility testing against 47 antibiotics showed that the strain was 4 to> 500 times more resistant to sulfonamides, quinolones, tetracyclines, macrolides, and the aminoglycoside streptomycin than the type strain O. intermedium LMG 3301(T). Whole-genome sequencing identified mutations in the Indian strain causing amino acid substitutions in the target enzymes of quinolones. We also characterized three acquired regions containing resistance genes to sulfonamides (sul1), tetracyclines [tet(G) and tetR], and chloramphenicol/ florfenicol (floR). Furthermore, the Indian strain harbored acquired mechanisms for horizontal gene transfer, including a type I mating pair-forming system (MPFI), a MOBP relaxase, and insertion sequence transposons. Our results highlight that WWTPs serving antibiotic manufacturing may provide nearly ideal conditions for the recruitment of resistance genes into human commensal and pathogenic bacteria.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available